Old man that I am, shall I behold such a miracle?
The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories
Edited by Jessica Harrison
Genre: Classics / Short Stories
About: This collection has no less than 32 short stories, all themed around the Christmas holidays.
Thoughts
The stories were easy to read and many of them were very on the short side being only a few pages in length. But unfortunately that meant that many of them lacked an impact and verged on pointless. I could have filtered out two thirds of this collection and been a lot happier with less stories that had more meaning behind them. It could also be that some of their meanings went over my head or the translations weren't good, I don't know. But I do know that out of the 32, there were 10 that actually stuck with me and which I really enjoyed. These were (in order of preference):
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
Noël by Irène Némirovsky
The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson
Midnight Mass by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Christmas Morning by Frank O'Connor
The Little Restaurant near Place des Ternes by George Simenon
One Christmas Eve by Langston Hughes
Boys by Anton Chekhov
The Legend of the Christmas Rose by Selma Lagerlõf
The Necklace of Pearls by Dorothy L. Sayers
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